Creature Comforts: What Went Wrong with the CBS Claymation Series?

by Trevor Kimball, August 3, 2007

Creature Comforts ran on CBS for only three weeks before being pulled due to low ratings. The British version of the claymation show has been a big hit for some time, so why didn’t the US incarnation catch on?

Series Producer Gareth Owen tells us, “If we had to do it all again, I don’t think there’s a lot we would change. The main problem appears to be sustaining interest over a half hour show. All the UK shows apart from one Christmas episode were under 10 minutes, which seems to be an ideal length for a ‘talking heads’ show. However writing plots, scripts or storylines goes against the rules of Creature Comforts and is not something that we would ever do.”

Though short-lived, the series earned a small but devoted group of fans. That fact isn’t lost on Owen who says, “We are extremely grateful to all the people who have shown their support since the show was pulled. We always knew it would be a show that would grow in popularity through word of mouth, the trouble was that it wasn’t given enough time to grow.”

There’s no official word from CBS but Owen tells us that the producers are still in discussions with the network about Creature Comforts’ future. For those who want to see the four unaired episodes and don’t want to wait for CBS to make up their minds, the complete DVD set will be released on October 9th. Stay tuned!